A known apparatus for opening cigarette packs is described in the document U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,380. In this apparatus the packs are cut on both sides and the cigarettes are blown out by an air jet directed in parallel to the cigarettes.
Document DE 28 40 999 describes a device in which packs are first cut on both sides and then turned over on a double-belt conveyor, after which the cigarettes fall out of the packs by the force of gravity.
Document EP 0 481 191 discloses a device in which packs are first cut on both sides in order to remove, among others, the cigarette filters, and then the packs are deformed by squeezing its side walls so as to loosen the shortened cigarettes (the tobacco parts of the cigarettes) and spill them out.
Finally, a device is known from the document U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,790 in which a soft pack is punctured by means of tubular needles through which pressurized air is injected into the inside the pack; upon “pumping up” the pack, its bottom side is cut off and the cigarettes contained therein are pushed out by means of a push rod.
In the above described machines the packs are opened by means of cutting, optionally involving puncturing as in case of U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,790. However, the cutting performed by means of disc knives, straight cutting edge knives, saws, water or laser cutting, results in the cigarettes being incised as well. Consequently, none of the known machines enables recovery of the cigarettes in an undamaged condition. A mixture of open cigarette packs, cigarettes and the cigarettes accidentally damaged during the opening of the packs is obtained. The incision of the cigarettes causes unnecessary degradation of the tobacco contained inside; further a dust is formed during the opening which is mixed with the tobacco. The dust may consist of harmless paper dust as well as of cellophane foil dust which is very detrimental to health.